Controversial Iraq War game, Six Days in Fallujah, brought back with new trailer

More than a decade after its cancelation, the controversial game Six Days in Fallujah has reportedly returned to development. The studio is aiming for a 2021 release.

Six Days in Fallujah was initially announced in 2009, but its subject matter sparked outrage from anti-war groups and veteran groups. Now, with a lot more time between its potential release and the war it portrays, there’s a chance that Six Days in Fallujah could see the light of day.

Six Days in Fallujah has been debated for so long, I remember reading articles on it in print gaming magazines.Now, thanks to @VicturaGG, the FPS set during one of the most brutal battles of the Iraq War is just around the corner.https://t.co/r6WEdD7rN5 (via @UncleDommy)

— Wicked Good Gaming (@WickedGoodGames) February 11, 2021

The Six Days in Fallujah controversy that got it canceled

Long before the term “cancel culture” became part of the popular lexicon, Six Days in Fallujah was arguably the best example of something being canceled due to popular outrage. Six Days in Fallujah aimed to portray a pivotal battle during the US-Iraq War that began in 2003.

The developers for Six Days in Fallujah reportedly worked very closely with veterans from the war. The game was an effort to bring the Iraq War home for Americans. It gave them an opportunity to empathize with the young adults that were sent half a world away to fight in a contentious war.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is known today that the Iraq War was initiated under false pretenses, but in 2009 many Americans still believed that the war had been justified. This controversial subject matter sparked protests from the anti-war crowd, who argued that the game would valorize an unjust and illegal war.

As a former Marine who served time in afghanistan, I'm very interested in Six Days in Fallujah finally coming outIt won't be just another war game. Very few times do veterans get to tell our actual stories and we don't like to sugar coat things. We tell it like it happened

— Douglas Copeland (@Ebonscale) February 11, 2021

Veteran groups also took issue with the fact that the game aimed to portray real experiences from veterans of a war, which, at the time, was still ongoing.

In 2009, many Americans, especially older ones, felt that gaming as a medium was too immature to handle such a serious topic and felt like it trivialized veterans’ experiences.

Regardless of the studio’s ambitions, Six Days in Fallujah was ultimately shelved in the wake of this controversy.

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2009 America wasn’t ready for Six Days in Fallujah

six days in fallujah is a game in such bad taste, so transparently evil on a conceptual level, that even the call of duty loving games journalists who were at that exact moment defending resident evil 5 as not racist were like "man i dunno dude" https://t.co/wdPk2wZyyc

— yuuko from nichijou (@headfallsoff) February 11, 2021

2009 saw the rise of the military-FPS genre, with Call of Duty and Battlefield both at their peak. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was arguably the zenith of the series, and other studios were hoping to copy its formula to find similar success.

But looking back at Call of Duty, the game arguably does more to trivialize warfare and combat experience than almost any other wargame. Call of Duty seldom makes players understand the weight of their actions. The narrative of the game is so bombastic and outrageous that it’s difficult to take seriously.

2009’s Call of Duty was simply the latest version of the video game power fantasy first established with 1993’s DOOM. The main character is mostly invincible, enemies are reduced to faceless human-shaped beings, and the act of killing is completely nullified to a simple game.

That’s fine. Call of Duty’s developers realized that their game would be more fun if players weren’t asked to critique their own actions or question the legitimacy of their conflict. It has much the same energy as an '80s macho action film.

But at the time, a small community of gamers and game developers saw that the medium could be lifted to an art form if it could begin tackling more serious topics. Games have a way of connecting with players more than books or movies ever can. Players are not simply passive observers in their own stories; they’re active participants whose choices drive the plot on.

It would take three more years for 2012’s Spec Ops: The Line to show that games could handle the horrific themes of warfare, combat fatigue, and PTSD in a way that made players question their own actions.

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Is the gaming community ready for Six Days in Fallujah?

Gonna go out on a limb and say Six Days in Fallujah is still a bad idea.

— Moosey™ Mechman™ (@MooseyMcMan) February 11, 2021

Gaming has come a long way since 2009. Brutal, narrative-heavy games have become more common and even found incredible critical success. The Last of Us (2013), Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (2017), and the previously mentioned Spec Ops: The Line (2012) have all told mature stories based on mature themes. They've found immense critical success as a result.

Additionally, the Iraq War has since finished, and Americans are far more removed from the events of the almost decade-long war whose effects are still being felt in the Middle East today.

There will almost certainly be some controversy around this new attempt at the game, but gamers are far better equipped to critique the narrative and potential bias within the game.

In a way, Six Days in Fallujah may be the kind of game the medium needs more of, though it will all depend on the final product.